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Florida Government Weekly Roundup: A Class in ‘Corrective Measures’
September 27, 2026
Florida Weekly Roundup is a look back at last week in a Florida politics and government.
oting got underway this week for the November general election as politicians debate the lack of debates amid growing political rhetoric.
Meanwhile, Florida has renewed its efforts to regulate what books children can read at school.
SHELF SPACE
Not waiting for more parents to speak out, Florida Education Commissioner Henry Mack directed school districts to set stricter rules for reviewing library and classroom books or face “corrective measures.”
A seven-page memo by Mack sent Wednesday told superintendents and charter school leaders to continuously audit books, review their collections and remove instructional materials that contain sexually explicit material, even if a parent or county resident has not submitted a complaint in that district.
“Make no mistake, the Department will hold districts, and the superintendents who lead them, accountable for failing to protect students from inappropriate content and material,” Mack wrote.
The Department of Education followed up with its own social media post: “SEXUALLY EXPLICIT and INAPPROPRIATE content has NO PLACE in Florida schools. Florida school districts will be held ACCOUNTABLE for failing to protect our children from this type of content. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”
Mack cited a recent school board meeting in Hillsborough County where parents spoke during public comment and recited passages from books in circulation they deemed inappropriate for students, including “Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out” by Susan Kuklin, “A Court of Wings and Ruin” by Sarah J. Maas, and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison.
Mack outlined a nine-point plan for the next 90 days for school districts to follow to improve their removals of age-inappropriate books from school shelves.
If a district does not comply, it risks losing state funds, grants, Florida Lottery money or any other funds appropriated by the Legislature.
A Florida law that faced multiple lawsuits says a school district can review and remove a book after a complaint has been made that a book is pornographic, obscene or isn’t age appropriate.
Books can also be removed as part of a regular selection process in which a media specialist can decide to remove them if they are outdated, rarely circulated or no longer relevant to the curriculum.
Some limits were placed on the law in 2024, such as allowing only a single challenge a month from people who don’t have a child in a public school.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who pushed lawmakers to pass the initial law, said at the time the change to the law was needed because “activist” teachers and others made a “mockery” of the legislation by filing frivolous challenges.
ELECTION PATROL
Six weeks before the general election, DeSantis and other state officials on Thursday hailed the indictments of 20 people on voting fraud charges.
“If somebody’s who is not eligible to vote casts a vote, that could cancel your vote out as a lawful citizen of this country and the free state of Florida,” DeSantis said at an event in Palm Beach County.
“At least three-quarters” of them are foreign nationals, with others being either felons who didn’t fulfill the terms of their sentence to regain their right to vote or who citizens who voted in multiple jurisdictions, Attorney General James Uthmeier said.
“If you’re going to cheat, we’re going to get you,” Uthmeier said. “I view these election crimes as some of the most dangerous in our country, because when you vote illegally it cancels out the votes of others. It challenges our very American sovereignty.”
Out of the 12 arrests, 11 were foreign nationals who are legal permanent residents in Florida. One Tampa resident is a convicted felon whose probation runs into 2032. All 12 voted in the 2024 election.
House Minority Leader and Senator-Elect Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, said the timing of the arrests “reeks of voter intimidation.”
“The Governor talked about ‘showing some accountability’ to uphold election integrity,” Driskell said in a statement. “How about some accountability for state officials at the highest levels who abused 10 million of taxpayer dollars for political purposes? When will Floridians see some accountability for Hope Florida? I am all for holding people who break the law responsible. Let’s make sure we are consistent.”
Less than two months before the 2022 mid-term election, DeSantis held a similar announcement that 20 felons across Florida were being arrested for voting illegally during the 2020 election.
During a campaign-style event in Fort Lauderdale, DeSantis called it “the opening salvo” for the state elections law enforcement office.
Many of the individuals charged in 2022 said they thought they were eligible to vote, despite past felony convictions, because they had been given a voter registration card.
BALLOTS IN THE MAIL
As of Friday morning, county supervisors of elections had already received more than 1,700 ballots from Floridians for the Nov. 3 general election.
The initial ballots were sent out last week to Floridians in the military and currently overseas.
This week the number of requested vote-by-mail ballots sent out topped 1.3 million.
As Leon County put 32,000 ballots in the mail on Thursday, County Supervisor of Election Mark Earley called the process “safe and secure.”
“Florida probably has some of the strictest standards in the nation about that. So, it’s a very secure way to vote,” Earley said.
The in-person early voting period is mandatory for all counties from Oct. 24 to Oct. 31.
In prior midterm elections, 7.8 million Floridians voted in 2022 and 8.3 million in 2018.
About 35 percent of the 2022 votes were cast by mail and 29 percent through in-person early voting. Four years earlier, mailed ballots accounted for 31 percent of the voting and early voting was nearly 33 percent.
The last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 election is Oct. 5.
STORY OF THE WEEK:
Florida Education Commissioner Henry Mack directs school districts to set stricter rules for reviewing library and classroom books or face “corrective measures.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
“Debates can matter, but of course, you have to have them first in order for them to matter.” — University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett on the lack of political debates between the major candidates for governor, U.S. Senate and state Cabinet offices.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
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